Fla.'s Kane's installs upscale GuildCraft galleries in all units
By Clint Engel -- Furniture Today, February 29, 2004
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — Kane's Furniture has added GuildCraft of California galleries to all 13 of its Florida stores, giving the Top 100 company a quality story at the top of its price spectrum and giving GuildCraft its first big presence in the Southeast.
The informal 1,000- to 1,500-square-foot galleries near the entrances to the stores feature six to eight living room settings, including tables and lamps as well as area rugs made for GuildCraft by Creative Accents and Kas. In one grouping, GuildCraft's casual Coos Bay living room is accompanied by a coordinated dinette and a smaller bistro table with barstools.
Fabric sofas are priced from $699 to about $1,099, higher than the retailer's previous peak of about $799, said Kane's CEO Irwin Novack. Room packages of traditional, contemporary and transitional furniture — sofa, loveseat and three tables — range from about $1,899 to $2,899.
A happy partnership
Novack wouldn't disclose sales figures but said, "The performance has far exceeded our expectations, and I believe it has far exceeded GuildCraft's expectation.
"Our people love the product," he added, noting that it's backed by a lifetime warranty. "We're happy to partner with GuildCraft."
Rick Tipton, a manager at Kane's store on Tampa's North Dale Mabry Highway, said his sales team can step consumers up to GuildCraft because the quality and craftsmanship is apparent.
"When something is good, it's easy to sell it," he said.
GuildCraft sells to Richmond, Va.-based The RoomStore, with locations in Virginia and a few in the Carolinas, but Kane's gives the California producer its first Florida exposure. The company has been pleasantly surprised by the consumer acceptance, said Larry Quilling, one of three partners in GuildCraft.
"Normally what's good on the West Coast filters back (East)," he said. "But Florida is a little different market with different demographics. We weren't quite sure what would happen, but we're very gratified."
He said GuildCraft's next Southeastern venture will be a gallery in Miskelly Furniture, the Jackson, Miss., retailer in the midst of a renovation and expansion project.
"But how aggressive we're going to get (expanding eastward), we don't know yet," Quilling said. "Obviously freight is an issue. It will be a pick-and-choose kind of thing."
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